The Natural World #4 by Damien Jay

While Mike "Gags" Dawson continues his ongoing assault on his family's collective joy with another new diet, only eating gift cake out of diapers, Alex "the Reliable Panther" has been on a crusade of a different kind, freeing dogs from cars everywhere, and attending a wedding with his wife in the small town of Iowa. Alex learns the city council has banned dancing and rock music. He is challenged to a game of chicken involving tractors, and despite having never driven one before, he wins. Alex and his wife want to do away with the no dancing law. Alex goes before the city council and reads several Bible verses to cite scriptural support for the worth of dancing to rejoice, exercise, or celebrate. Although Rev. Moore is moved and tries to get them to abolish the law, the council votes against him. Moore's wife, Vi, is supportive of the movement, and explains to Moore he cannot be everyone's father, and that he is hardly being a father to Ariel. She also says that dancing and music are not the problem. Moore soon has a change of heart after seeing some of the townsfolk burning books that they think are dangerous to the youth. On Sunday, Rev. Moore asks his congregation to pray for the high school students putting on the prom, which is set up at a grain mill outside of the town limits. Moore and Vi are seen outside, dancing for the first time in years. It just goes to show you, there's somebody for everybody, huh?

T.I.P.S! 165 Trekkers and BlooSies » The Ink Panthers Show!

theinkpanthers.mikedawsoncomics.com

Items covered: Alex has launched a new daily podcast called Star Wars Minute; Mike is on a new novelty diet and is going to great lengths not to offend anyone with it; both Panthers believe in not abusing animals; and a lengthy spoiler-filled discussion of this Summer’s sci-fi hit Star Trek Into Dar...

It's the return of Scuttlebutt, which is our blog, and we are blogging about our return to CAKE, which is the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo. It really should be Komics, especially now that the Iron Curtain is back in fashion. You can read all about our new comic debut for the show, Sequential Vacation 2. Sequential Vacation 1 has been in the Secret Acres Emporium and on Secret Acres tables at shows all over the North American continent for a while now, so you may be familiar with it. You can go ahead and order both from us, goodness guaranteed. Sar Shahar, the travel agent behind Sequential Vacation is on our CAKE ticket, making the trip from Lalaland. He will be joined by the artist formerly known as Ken Dahl, currently known as Gabby Schulz, marking Gabby's big return to our show scene and the first time he's been behind a table since last year's CAKE. We've even got some (kind of) news about his new book, SICK. The rest of the gang, including Edie Fake, CAKE maker that he is, has been up to all sorts of stuff - and you can get new new stuff from Edie and Theo in the Emporium, mini-comics style. That'll all be at CAKE, too. Either get yourself to to Chicago this weekend or get shopping. We gotta go pack now.

Secret Acres

secretacres.com

IT’S VEHICULAR WARFARE out there. Secret Acres is making a lightning attack on Chicago, particularly on the Chicago Alternative (K)omics Expo – and we’re gonna eat it, too! Yes, this will be the longest road trip of all time, but what would all you brohemians do without your comics? Flying in from t...

You want more Edie Fake? Everyone wants more Edie Fake! He's back on Pitchfork's life stylee site, being interviewed by Matt Putrino of Nothing Major. Everybody pretty much knows everything about Edie because he Edie is everywhere. However, there is a bit on here about what a lousy researcher Edie is - and his sleeping habits. Or lack thereof. This Edie never sleeps. You know what they don't talk about? CAKE! Meaning the Chicago Alternative (K)omics Expo, which is weird, because Edie's a founder and they talk about Chicago a lot (though we're not entirely sure about the connection they make between Chicago and Gaylord Phoenix, but okay). We'll have more on our CAKE plans and debut in a bit. Anyhow, enjoy this one and the pretty pictures, but get yourself to Chicago for CAKE and see Edie in person. He's worth the trip.

Edie Fake

nothingmajor.com

The Chicago artist talks queer history research snacking and living like a nomad in grease-powered buses.

Old pal Sean T. Collins, here writing for Vorpalizer, takes a look at Edie Fake's series Memory Palaces. Yes, this is the Edie Fake behind the graphic novel, Gaylord Phoenix, but this isn't comics, exactly. This is a series of pen and ink paintings about Edie's hometown Chicago's queer history, both real and imagined. As Sean points out, one would at first assume that this was all done on a computer, but Edie's skills really are that tight. There's a kind of power to seeing these pieces in person that's difficult to describe, but the images here have enough size that you can get a sense of their texture and depth. Anyhow, it's a short review, but you can get some good, long stares in. Maybe, just maybe, you'll see them in print one of these days...

Webcomic Wednesday - Memory Palaces by Edie Fake ... |

vorpalizer.com

Webcomic Wednesday - Memory Palaces by Edie Fake What you’re looking at was not created digitally. Sure, the buildings in Chicago cartoonist Edie Fake’s Memory Palaces series look like what would happen if you artificially evolved the pipes and castles in Super Mario Bros. forward about 2,000 years,...

Phantasmaphile's Pam Grossman has some very nice words indeed for our man Eamon Espey's latest Secret Acres collection, Songs of the Abyss. Pam, a fellow Brooklyn resident and founder of Observatory, is a real live artist in her own right and it shows up here. Grouping Eamon in with other visionary comic artists, including Secret Acres' Theo Ellsworth, she experienced Songs of the Abyss in "a state of shocked reverie" rather than scrambling to assemble the narrative on the page. We're hardcore story addicts, so it isn't really in our nature to do this, but perhaps we'll give it a shot. This ought to be a nice homecoming present for Eamon, who is now back from his nationwide tour of Ishi's Brain, the live show based on the story of the same name in Songs of the Abyss. The show may be over, but you can still read the thing. Also, Pam calls Secret Acres "always exceptional" in this review. So we're blushing. Thanks, Pam!

Phantasmaphile: Eamon Espey

http://www.phantasmaphile.com

Eamon Espey I first discovered Eamon Espey circuitously via Theo Ellsworth, as both of their books are published by the always exceptional Secret Acres. I see Espey's work as part of a visionary comics lineage that includes Ellsworth, Ron Rege,...